Education Matters: Second Chance Last Opportunity’s New Women’s Center

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | July 2022

One of the biggest challenges in helping the poor and disenfranchised is first gaining their trust. Yet that’s something Dr. April Glasco has earned because she’s been there for them for more than 25 years, having established Second Chance Last Opportunity decades ago to provide crisis prevention, intervention, referral, and life skills training for at-risk teens and their low income and/or homeless families. 

But her success stems from more than just that—people have come to trust Dr. Glasco because she’s walked a path similar to theirs, having been a single mother of four daughters who once lived in a car to escape an abusive husband. In her work as a corrections officer with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and a case worker for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, Dr. Glasco witnessed how our community—how every community—is challenged by issues of violence, drugs, addiction, and generational cycles of government dependence.

She decided to do something about it. 

In 1995, Second Chance Last Opportunity, a community-based 501(c)(3) organization, began helping the community’s isolated, underserved population from a purple house on 1933 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way. That has since become the hub for emergency food and clothing distribution. The organization’s second site opened years later at 14. S. Lime Avenue, and it serves as an education, counseling, and training center as well as Dr. Glasco’s office. Since demand has increased beyond capacity for those two sites, Dr. Glasco opened a third site in May 2022—the new Women’s Center at 1032 – 1034 Colleton Drive.

“Six months ago,” she says, “someone asked us if we were interested in the building, and I said Sure! It was a hair salon. It needed fixing up and new walls, but many people helped and supported the necessary renovations.” Today, this impressive new facility is ready to empower women in our community. About ten women participate in each week’s Tuesday Zoom classes, while a dozen or more meet face-to-face on Thursdays at the new site to take empowerment classes to help give women a much-needed second chance at life.

Dr. Glasco admits, “In my 33 years of doing this, I never thought I’d be able to reach the goal I set for myself in the beginning when I started Second Chance—having the services that were desperately needed to help these individuals become effective and change their lives one at a time. But that’s where we are now.”

The Women’s Center offers a boutique for women that has goods such as clothes and baby supplies that are free. Those who shop there can take what they need and in return donate a few dollars. Most, however, pay for the goods they need through donating volunteer hours there or at the other Second Chance facilities. Dr. Glasco welcomes the help because volunteers are the engine that make her organization go. “When we give out emergency food or clothing, the majority of clients we assist come and help. They want to volunteer. They want to make a difference, and they feel good about doing it.” It’s also a way for them to learn skills that can help later in a job, such as how to deal with people without getting overly emotional. 

One of Second Chance’s many success stories is how it helped a recently widowed woman of color who was depressed, and then came the pandemic. She didn’t leave her house for three years. But she agreed to join one of Second Chance’s Zoom classes. When it was time for the class’ graduation, the woman had to decide—could she let go of fear and sadness, and release what she was going through? She did. And now she shares her struggles with other women to help them through their own challenges.

One of the surprising things is that Second Chance isn’t just serving Newtown or the population of Sarasota. People are coming up from Parrish, Englewood, and North Port because they know there’s hope here. It’s not about free food or emergency Pampers. It’s that Dr. Glasco cares. People have come to realize what an organization like Second Chance can do for a community as a whole.

“You have to adapt to change and not give up, not feel that you will never make it,” Dr. Glasco explains. “Second Chance is there to let them know that there IS a way out. We teach them how to become what they need to become.” For her, every moment is a teachable moment where she can mentor people to be successful in the next phase of their lives. Giving them the skills and opportunities is key to giving them back the responsibility for turning their own lives around. 

When asked how Second Chance can make a difference when other organizations that have similar goals of helping them still have people falling through the cracks, Dr. Glasco had a simple answer: “Because we’re right there where they’re falling.”

For 33 years, Dr. Glasco has been right there where they’re falling. And she and her team of volunteers aren’t going anywhere.

FOR MORE INFORMATION on the Second Chance Last Opportunity, please visit www.secondchancelastopportunity.org or call 941.360.8660.